Went out at the beginning of the month to photograph the VHSL Region 6A Semifinal football game. The game was between the 13-0 Ocean Lakes Dolphins and the 13-0 Manchester Lancers. Since this was a playoff game, their had to be a winner.

Unfortunately for Ocean Lakes, a series of mistakes combined with Manchester scoring three touchdowns in 5 minutes led to a 42-3 victory for Manchester sending them to the VHSL State Championship game. Manchester would go onto win the state championship game against Freedom 49-7.

Here are a few photos from the Ocean Lakes vs Manchester Semifinal game. Enjoy.

Three tips that I wanted to share while going through some basketball photos. The first tip is have the appropriate equipment. You need to have equipment that will help you actually photograph the sport that you want to shoot. I highly suggest that every sports photographer (and photographer in general) invest in a good 70-200 f2.8 lens. Its a highly versatile lens that can be used for both sports and other types of photography. The other thing is to have a camera that can handle low light situations. The majority of high school sports are done in low light (either indoors or at night). You need a camera that can handle that

The second tip is know the sport and know the rules. Youtube is a great resource for watching games and for videos that explain the rules. If you know the sport and the rules it will help you better anticipate what is going to happen during the game and help you capture the peak action.

The third tip is slow down. There are so many times I see people saying they take thousands of photos during a game. In a college football game there are 3600 seconds of game action. If you take 4000 photos that means you are taking at least one photo for each second the game clock is running. That means you are either motor driving (aka spray and pray) or you dont know what you’re trying to shoot (see tip two). My suggestion is to “reset” your thinking by switching to single shot and making a conscience effort to compose your shots and only release the shutter at the peak of the action.

If you know the sport you are shooting and you practice eventually you will start nailing the peak action in single shot nearly every time. This will not only help you out when you go to edit the photos but it will make you a better photographer because it forces you to think about what you actually want to shoot and not spray and pray hoping you got something good.

From 1930 to 1940 Old Dominion fielded a football team. During those 11 seasons Old Dominion played on Foreman Field and had an overall record of 42-36-4. In 1940 the team went 0-6 for the season and the program came to an end for various reasons.

On February 9, 2007 Old Dominion announced they had hired Bobby Wilder to be head coach. In 2009 Old Dominion ran back onto Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium for the first time in 68 years and ended the first season back with a record of 9-2.

In the last 10 seasons, under the coaching of Bobby Wilder, Old Dominion has a record of 72-36 including two FCS Division I playoff appearances and a trip to the Bahamas Bowl where they defeated Eastern Michigan 24-20.

During the 2013 season Old Dominion had a record high game where they scored 76 points against Howard University the final score being 76-19. But that wasn’t the biggest win in either points or pride. Earlier this season, Old Dominion defeated 13th rank Virginia Tech in a stunning 49-35 victory.

During all the years Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium has been the backdrop to Old Dominion football and its 20,000+ seats has stood tall through the ups and downs.

On November 17th Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium hosted the final home game of the 2018 season as well as the last game to be played at S.B. Ballard Stadium. Old Dominion faced off against VMI, defeating them 77-14 setting a new points scoring record.

Old Dominion quarterback Blake LaRussa went 15-20 for 128 yards and 2 touchdowns. Senior running back Jeremy Cox carried the ball 13 time for 98 yards and 2 touchdowns and freshman running back Matt Geiger had 17 carries for 91 yards and 3 touchdowns.

After the game players and fans stood on the field as a video about the history of Foreman Field played on the video board. At the end of the video, in dramatic fashion, the lights were shut off for the final time. After a fireworks display, in just as dramatic fashion, the lights for the new stadium were turned on.

Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium, which has stood since 1936, will be demolitioned over the next year and a brand new stadium will be built in its place. Construction on the new stadium will be completed before the first home game of the 2019 season.

Here are a few photos from the final game played at Foreman Field at S.B. Ballard Stadium. Enjoy.

Went down to the Outer Banks a few weeks ago and photographed the 2018 Outer Banks Marathon. While it was raining the day before, the day of the Marathon ended up being pretty nice. Here are a few of the more excited finishers. Enjoy.

Old Dominion started its regular season at home a few weeks ago against Navy. Old Dominion started out slow but ended up pulling off at 67 to 44 win. Old Dominion’s Ahmad Caver played 33 minutes and scored 24 points. Navy’s top scorer, George Kiernan, played 27 minutes and scored 10 points. Here are a few photos from the game. Enjoy.

Old Dominion hosted Virginia Wesleyan for a pre-season exhibition game at the Ted Constant Center a few weeks ago. At the end of the game Old Dominion defeated Virginia Wesleyan 83 to 54. Old Dominion’s Ahmad Caver played 32 minutes and scored 28 points. Virginia Wesleyan’s Lamont Steward and Tim Fisher both scored 11 points.

Old Dominion starts the regular season November 6th at home against Navy. Here are a few photos from the game. Enjoy,

Norfolk State had its homecoming game a few weeks ago and I went down to cover the game for the newspaper. Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole game which isn’t any fun to shoot in but it does add a different feeling to the photos with the rain coming down or water being kicked up on the field.

The second unfortunate part was Norfolk State got beat 36 to 6 with Norfolk State scoring their only touchdown of the game with 16 seconds left in the 4th quarter. After scoring the touchdown they attempted a 2-point conversion which failed.

Norfolk State quarterback Juwan Carter completed 15 of 28 passes for 140 yards and 2 interceptions. North Carolina Central running back Isaiah Totten ran the ball 12 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. Here are a few photos from the game. Enjoy

Marshall traveled to Old Dominion on October 13th for a Conference USA matchup. Three 4th quarter touchdowns led Marshall to a 42 to 20 win. Old Dominion quarterback Blake LaRussa completed 31 of 54 passes for 296 yards and 2 touchdowns with only one interception. Marshall running back Tyler King ran for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns. Here are a few of the photos from the game. Enjoy.

Between other jobs I’ve been doing and recent storms I haven’t had too many opportunities to photograph many high school games. With that being said, here are a few photos from recent games I’ve had the chance to cover.

Going into the Virginia Tech vs Old Dominion game, Virginia Tech was ranked #13 in the nation and Old Dominion was the 28.5 point underdog. Virginia Tech struck first with a one play 87 yard touchdown run by Steven Peoples. Old Dominion immediately answered back with a 75 yard drive ending with a 14 yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Blake LaRussa to Jonathan Duhart.

Virginia Tech responded early in the second quarter with a 28 yard pass from Josh Jackson to Sean Savoy bring the score to 14 to 7. Old Dominion mounted a 9 play, 79 yard drive with another pass from Blake LaRussa to Jonathan Duhart to tie the game at 14 with seven seconds left before halftime.

The third quarter saw two touchdowns by Virginia Tech including Damon Hazelton scoring on a 72 yard pass play from Josh Jackson. Old Dominion answering with one touchdown bringing the score to 28 to 21, Virginia Tech, heading into the fourth quarter.

Starting the fourth quarter Virginia Tech had dropped from a commanding 98.4% chance of winning to a 83% chance of winning. ODU started the fourth quarter on offense and made a 7 play, 75 yard drive for a touchdown from Blake LaRussa to Travis Fulgham tying the game at 28. That was followed up by another 5 play, 67 yard drive with Jeremy Cox scoring a touchdown on a 15 yard run taking ODU into the lead 35 to 28.

Virginia Tech answered for the last time in the game with a 7 play, 75 yard drive to tie the game back at 35 with a 13 yard touchdown pass from Ryan Willis to Chris Cunningham. This would be the last time that Virginia Tech scored in the game.

With the game tied at 35 Old Dominion mounted another 8 play, 75 yard drive touchdown drive with Jonathan Duhart taking a 29 yard pass from Blake LaRussa putting ODU in the lead 42 to 35.

With the clock at 1:45 seconds left, Virginia Tech took their last timeout of the second quarter. After the timeout ODU lined up for a 1st and 10 on the Virginia Tech 40 yard line. Instead of kneeling and running out the clock, Blake LaRussa took the snap and handed the ball of to Jeremy Cox. 11 seconds later Cox was standing in the endzone with another touchdown off a 40 yard run bringing the score to 49 to 35.

Virginia Tech took over the ball with 1:34 left in the game and ran 9 plays for 50 yards ending with Virginia Tech quarterback Ryan Willis being sacked for a loss of 3 yards on a 3rd and 10 play from the Old Dominion 22 yard line ending the game.

Blake LaRussa came in off the bench on the second drive of the game and his first play from scrimmage was a 30 yard pass to Travis Fulgham. From there LaRussa would complete 30 of 49 passes for 495 yards, 4 touchdowns, and no interceptions. Jonathan Duhart had 9 receptions for 142 yards and 3 touchdowns and Jeremy Cox had 20 carries for 130 yards and 2 touchdowns.

So living in Virginia Beach Hurricane Florence didn’t hit us nearly as bad as originally predicted. The plan originally was to do a lot of storm coverage but since nothing really happened I only got a couple shots from Thursday.

Old Dominion University’s home opener was a few weeks ago and they were coming off an upsetting loss on the road to Liberty University. The first half was looking good for the Monarchs until late in the second quarter when a couple mistakes happened allowing FIU to get back into the game. At halftime there was a lightening delay and the second half didn’t resume until 11:15pm. During the second half FIU came back with several strong drives allowing them to outscore the Monarchs 28 to 20. The game ended around just after 12:30am. Here are a few photos. Enjoy.

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School is getting ready to start again (or has already started) and with that comes the fall sports season. Unfortunately I was busy the first week of football but I made up for it by photographing two games last week.

I almost missed both these games because they didn't play on Friday night like normal. The first game was on Thursday night (which luckily I noticed Thursday morning) and the second game was a lucky break because it got rained/flooded out Friday night and they played on Saturday afternoon.